EDITORIAL - Time to deal with calamities realistically

Perhaps it is time the government considers putting up permanent facilities intended for use as evacuation centers in times of calamities instead of perpetuating the current practice of using schools for the purpose. In Cebu City, for instance, a recent fire resulted in a double calamity of sorts when fire victims were made to occupy no less than a dozen classrooms at a nearby school, forcing the students using them to be displaced at the expense of their education.

We have nothing against finding temporary shelters for victims of calamities, precisely why we are calling on the government to put up permanent facilities to serve the purpose. The practice of using schools as evacuation centers just cannot go on forever. In fact, the practice of using schools for purposes other than for education must stop. Even using them as lodging accommodations during athletic events, which can sometimes run for more than a week, will no longer do.

We have been made to believe by government that imposing its hugely unpopular and ill-timed K to 12 program is for the benefit of education. And yet it does not walk the talk. This continued disruption of classes to allow the use of schools as evacuation centers is the best proof that when it comes to education, government is only good in paying lip service.

How many days in a school calendar are lost because schools are allowed to be used for purposes other than education? How many lessons go unlearned or fall behind schedule because classes cannot proceed as efficiently as they should had they been done in classrooms instead of in makeshift accommodations to give way to either calamity victims or athletic delegations?

Either the government builds permanent facilities for use as evacuation centers or athletic accommodations or it finds suitable alternatives other than using schools.

The construction of evacuation centers should be made an integral part of disaster preparedness programs. The government cannot just go on spending good money on the pretense of being prepared and ready for calamities like holding well-publicized nationwide earthquake drills. It must do something tangible and realistic.

Of what good are drills and exercises other than landing in the newspapers or get shown on television if there are no meaningful, realistic and practical efforts to truly address problems posed by calamities. Fires may cause untold misery on those affected, but they are usually confined to smaller areas. Yet if the government cannot even, up to this day, find the time and the means to deal with their victims, how much more for larger and more massive calamities?

Again, it is time for government to get real. It is time for it to do what can be done. While exercises and drills serve some useful purpose, they are not the be-all and do-all means in dealing with calamities. In fact they only scratch the surface of what really needs to be done. And one thing that really needs to be done is the construction of permanent facilities to deal with victims of any calamity, the Philippines being such a calamity-prone country.